A HIQA inspection of Tusla foster care services in the Mid West in July found them to be non-compliant when it came to matching carers with children and young people.
Inspectors found that the Mid West "continued to experience difficulties" in matching children to foster carers best placed to meet their individual needs.
Children told inspectors they knew little about their foster carers before they were placed, with few children being able to meet or have introductory visits before they moved.
According to the inspection report, "practice overall was variable" and in some cases placement decisions did not sufficiently consider the likely longer-term impact on other children living in the household.
It said the service area's matching processes required further development to ensure children were consistently placed with foster carers who had sufficient capacity and expertise to care for them.
"The continued increase in foster carers who were caring for higher numbers of children than they were approved for and tackling the increase in placement breakdowns remained priority areas for improvement," it said.
HIQA also found the service area non-compliant when it came to the recruitment and retention of foster carers.
Inspectors said shortfalls in the availability of foster carers had reached "crisis point" with relatively high numbers of foster carers continuing to exit the service.
This was despite the area organising two recruitment campaigns in the past 12 months.
There were also "ongoing gaps" in the range, diversity and responsiveness of the area’s existing foster care panel.
"Despite significant efforts made by the fostering team including national searches, bespoke campaigns and approaches to private foster care agencies, delays in finding suitable permanent homes for children were increasing," it said.
Prior to the inspection, the Mid West service area checked the number of children in its care that had been experiencing bullying or racial harassment.
Feedback from front-line practitioners indicated there had been 13 bullying incidents and one incident of racial abuse.
An inspector reviewed four of these records for the quality of practice.
Risks to children were clearly recorded in two of them, with appropriate follow-up with the children and their foster carers to see what, if anything, had changed for them.
Service managers recognised the risk of under-reporting, and HIQA found they were committed to strengthening their understanding of and processes for safeguarding children exposed to poor treatment.
The service area managers said they would welcome further training, direction and guidance from Tusla’s national office about best practice in the management of such incidents and how best to support children so affected to speak out and to feel safe.
